How a LinkedIn post got Chase’s attention — and why we left anyway 👀

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DE-BANKING
How a LinkedIn post got Chase’s attention — and why we left anyway

If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you’re probably aware of our banking, er, challenges. I want to write about it in case it’s helpful to anyone out there, and to put it on the record for how difficult it is to operate in this industry, still, in 2026. 

Even for a non-plant touching media company like ours that covers the sector. 

So here’s how it all went down. Or, in other words, how a LinkedIn post got the bank’s attention. 

We were customers of Chase’s business banking unit for nearly three years. 

While we’re certainly not a unicorn, we’re good customers. We pay our credit card bill on time and in full (which maybe makes us less-than-optimal customers, I guess), and we use our account to receive invoices, pay contract writers, and the monthly software subscription fees that keep our little business humming. Cash flows in and out of our account on a regular basis, it’s not sitting there inert. 

I returned from a 9-day trip to Chile with my family on a red-eye flight last Monday. Obviously pretty tired. I get a text message from Chase while still sitting on the tarmac, saying that I need to call right away because my account is at risk of being shut down.

I get off the plane and call and reach a customer service representative in India after a quick hold. They tell me our account was deemed “out of scope” of Chase’s business, and the account is being shut down. They say I’ll receive a check to my mailing address with the full balance in the checking account — it was only a few thousand bucks at the time since we were supposed to receive a big chunk of our March invoices that week — and that our business credit card was being shut down as well.

I pleaded my case, but the person could not answer why the account was being shut down. I asked her if there was any other information they could provide, but they said this is all they have and the decision is final. No recourse. The supervisor I then reached had no further useful information. 

All of our software, including our internet service provider, Slack — which we use to communicate between our Toronto and NYC bureaus (Jay’s kitchen and my apartment) — Quickbooks, etc., were all at risk of losing service, which means our website would be shut down. It also meant I had to reach out to our writers and tell them I couldn’t pay them on time. And if there’s one north star in how I run my business as a journalist, it’s paying writers on time. That sucked. 

The cherry on top? 

We got back to my apartment, I went to get a sandwich and a coffee, and my personal Chase card didn’t work. This was later revealed to be a mistake, but I was caught in some algorithmic dragnet that didn’t like what our business was doing.

On Tuesday morning, after a full night of sleep, I called again to see if anything had changed. I was again told that our account was “out of scope” of Chase’s business. The person told me this time that it’s written into the fine print that Chase can review your account at any time, and they can close it without recourse. I’m guessing that’s standard for most banks, but another sign to read the fine print.

I was pretty annoyed at that point, so I took to social media to vent. I wrote a similar post across my roughly 20,000 followers on Twitter/X and LinkedIn, describing our debanking situation and asking for help. (So many people reached out to help, so if I haven’t gotten back to you yet, thank you…)

Later that day, I got a missed call from Chase’s Executive Office in Houston. When I called back, they told me my account was now under review and not closed. At that point, fed up with the situation, Jay and I had already made the decision to work with our friends at Safe Harbor Financial to get set up with Partners Colorado Credit Union, which is much friendlier to the industry than a behemoth like Chase. 

I told them I would’ve been happy to remain a Chase customer, but we can’t have our business at risk of being disrupted like this. If this happened once, I assumed it would happen again. She told me she understood. I have to say, the Executive Office was far more professional than the regular call center. Out of journalistic curiosity, I asked if she could review the files to see exactly what shut the account down and why. She agreed to do it, and said she’d call me back later.

The next morning, I received a call from her colleague in the Executive Office. This person said my account fell under a review, and was immediately frozen. But get this: after a secondary review, the bank unfroze the credit cards and said my account could remain open. 

So I asked, what triggered the secondary review? They said that a “social media” post of mine on LinkedIn was brought to the bank’s attention. And that’s what triggered the call from the Executive Office, as well as the official second review. 

I told the person that I appreciate their time and help. But the fact that it was my LinkedIn post, which got around 90 likes and 50+ comments, that really triggered a human to consider the issue seems a little bit unfair to the hundreds of cannabis businesses across the U.S. that don’t have the same platform I do.

And it’s not like I’m some big-shot. Chase clearly didn’t want to create trouble with a journalist, which is as rational as it is unfair for everyone else. 

And we’re also not a huge moneymaker for the bank, so for them, it’s better to lose the business and be safe, than to take the risk. Every bank has its own risk calculus and banking small cannabis businesses is clearly below Chase’s. 

So to me, there’s a few lessons here. 

One, the squeaky wheel always gets the grease. Two, people are paying attention on LinkedIn, which goes against every fiber of what I used to believe about the platform. And three, big banks are still highly reluctant to work with any company with a whiff of cannabis even in 2026. Even after Presidents in both parties supported cannabis reform. 

Obviously, this is going to take an act of Congress to change. 

While we are back on our feet, I hope by sharing this story it’ll help wake up some lawmakers who claim to support entrepreneurship and job creation, but don’t want to touch cannabis with a ten-foot-pole. Well, here’s an example of where Congress can actually really help small businesses such as ours, by passing banking legislation like the SAFE Banking Act. 

-JB

“Congress's last-minute revival of hemp prohibition, included in last year's Continuing Appropriations Act, would ban most hemp products and wipe out the multi-billion-dollar industry, while depriving individuals of products they depend upon to improve sleep, relieve anxiety, and alleviate pain,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said. 

“My bill would protect thousands of jobs, family farms, and safe access for veterans and seniors.”

Paul plans to introduce the Hemp Safety Enforcement Act, which would let states “opt-out” of the looming ban on hemp-derived THC products set to go into effect in November. The bill would allow states to continue to set their own regulatory policies, including age-gating, dosing, and licensing. Paul says he looks forward to bipartisan support for the legislation.

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